How to Love Each Other

Christian, your savior is a merciful high priest. He has compassion for you. He has been there. He knows what it is like. He is not looking to condemn you. Your sins move him more to pity than to anger. He is a savior you can go to with anything.

The love of Jesus is stronger than all your difficulties, stronger than all your deficiencies, stronger than all your disloyalties.

Christ’s love for you had no beginning and it will have no end. He has loved you with an everlasting love. That’s why the Son of God came into the world to be your savior, and why the Spirit of God laid hold of you, and why the Savior will take you home.

But don’t miss this, after Jesus puts his love on display, he says to us, “Love each other as I have loved you.” The sins of others are to evoke more pity than anger, even through all of their deficiencies and disloyalties. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

God’s love toward us anticipates what we one day will be. How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God (1 John 3:1).

Where are you beginning to love others as God has loved you? Where do you see a gap between God’s love for you and your love for others?

Colin Smith is the Senior Pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He has authored a number of books, including Heaven, How I Got Here and Heaven, So Near - So Far. Colin is the President and Teacher for Unlocking the Bible. Follow him on Twitter.

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